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Copyright 2013 Pride Source Media Group, LLC www.PrideSource.com February 28, 2013 | BTL 3 Watch the Online Video www.pridesource.com AIDS Partnership Michigan: ‘Best Job—Hardest Job; I Ever Had’ Barbara Murray Reflects On A Quarter Century On The Front Lines Battling HIV BY TODD HEYWOOD as an executive director. introduce her to Annie, and went to the bars “I guess that was the replacement for being Finding The Love of Her Life in Detroit. DETROIT – After 24 years at the helm a camp director, being an executive director,“ As her friend, and boss, was preparing to Just before her boss and friend left for Texas, of AIDS Partnership Michigan – in some she said with a laugh. leave for Texas to embark on her new job Murray recalls a conversation with her. iteration or another – Barbara Murray will Years later she ran into a former Girl Scout there, Murray said she invited her to the bars “She said, ‘Murray, when was the last time retire March 4. camper at the Hotter Than July! celebration, in Detroit. As a lesbian, in the late 70s, the you were in love? You need to be in love,’” In an interview with Between The Lines, and the young woman told her she was sorry repercussions of being seen in Flint’s local gay she said. “I thought, ‘well, I probably ought Murray discussed her career, her life and the Murray had not gotten the post leading the bar were immediate, she recalled. to listen to her.’” changing face of an epidemic that has carved YWCA in Flint, but that it had been because she “I knew damn well that if I did (go to the But getting to love took time. Murray was in its existence in gay life. was a lesbian. In her typical ho-hum downplay gay bar in Flint),” she draws her finger across the process of ending a “broken” relationship “Best job – hardest job, I ever had,” she of things, she shrugged her shoulders and said, her throat. with another woman at the time, and took two told BTL of her post at APM. But HIV was “Well, isn’t that interesting?” Murray accepted the invitation, which she years to discover who she was. not where she had imagined herself many would later discover had been a set-up to While it would take two years for Murray years ago. to call Annie and pursue a relationship with “Well, frankly, all I ever wanted to be was her, the two have now been together for 29 a camp director,” she said. That came from years now. her experience during college working for the “Oh my God! She’s my rock. She’s the love Girl Scouts as a camp counselor. She laughs of my life,” Murray gushed. now, as she looks back on it, realizing that the She said Annie recognizes that running an end of camp doldrums left her wishing for the AIDS organization is a marriage unto itself, adrenaline of being with the kids again. but she doesn’t allow Murray to bring it home She served the Girl Scouts here in Michigan, with her, “which is good,” she declares. and then took a post in West Virginia as development director. She returned to Michigan and Flint, to work at the YWCA. The Passion There she helped start a domestic violence Murray admits that when a board member at shelter and program. the vision clinic approached her about the post “We built it from the ground up,” she said. of running an AIDS organization – then called “We did it in a little less than two years.” Wellness – she was not particularly interested. And it was during this time that she faced “I was kind of liking this 9-to-5 job,” she off with Michael Moore, who then ran the Flint said. Voice, an alternative newspaper in the area. But the board member, who was also on She said he “ripped” her and the organization the Wellness board, wouldn’t relent. Murray a “new one” for their plans. She said Moore finally agreed to the interview with the board, thought volunteers for the YWCA should to get the woman “off my back.” house survivors in their own homes. “The interview was on a Saturday morning “I thought, Michael, what are you going to and I walked in and I was just so laid back do when the first guy – course this literally because I was doing this to get her to shut up,” happened – we had a guy try to drive his car Murray said. “Halfway through the interview, through the lobby of the YW (to get at his I wanted it so bad. I wanted to say, ‘Please, partner),” she said of the conflict. hire me. Please.’” During this time, working with domestic That flip in attitude was a result of the violence survivors, Murray said she learned passion of the board members and volunteers one of the most important lessons. interviewing her she said. “I learned how important people who are “I have never seen people so passionate going through that are as spokespersons and about what they were doing.” as teachers,” she said. HIV and AIDS, while certainly something After the executive director she was working she was aware of at the time, was not a part with left to run a Texas YWCA, Murray was of her everyday life at that point. She had passed over for promotion to become the attended one fundraiser for AIDS, hosted by next executive director, and the new leader a friend who had done fundraisers for the “made it clear” Murray was not particularly Barbara Murray with Associate Executive Director, Director of Prevention Services, Hank Milbourne; incoming Common Ground organization, and Murray welcome in the organization anymore.